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Preferring Girls Over Boys

For generations, boys have been preferred to girls in Asian culture, but there is at least one study that hints that in at least one country this bias is changing.

A survey by South Korea’s Institute of Child Care and Education, conducted two years ago but released only this month, found that “38 percent of mothers-to-be wanted a daughter, while 31 percent said they preferred a son,” according to the Web site Channel News Asia.com. Perhaps even more surprising, “among fathers-to be, 37 percent wanted a daughter and 29 percent a son.”

The shift in sentiment can be seen in a shift in newborn gender ratios. As the reporter Lim Yun Suk writes:

Twenty years ago, when Korean parents could decide on the sex of their child, there were 116.5 baby boys for every 100 girls born.

That ratio has been falling steadily.

In 2008, there were 106.4 boys for every 100 girls, a number that’s within the international average.

Why the change?

Maybe it’s the fact that parents are now less likely to rely on their children for financial support after retirement, making it less necessary to have a son, who was assumed to be a better breadwinner.

Or that the low national birth rate (the lowest in the world) means that parents who are planning just one child believe a girl will care for them emotionally in their old age.

Or perhaps its simply because, Ms. Lim speculates, “it’s more fun bringing up girls than boys.”

Is it? Reproductive endocrinologists who subspecialize in gender selection have long held that American women want daughters while American men want sons. Does that reflect the preferences at your house? Is it progress that boys are not de facto preferred in South Korea, or is the flip side just as troubling? If you have a preference, do you admit it?

About

We're all living the family dynamic, as parents, as children, as siblings, uncles and aunts. At Motherlode, lead writer and editor KJ Dell’Antonia invites contributors and commenters to explore how our families affect our lives, and how the news affects our families—and all families. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more